Developing the physical coordination required for proper eating habits is one of the challenges that young children face during their early years. The limited dexterity that young children have with their hands makes it difficult for children to learn the proper mariners in grasping, handling, and using eating utensils. In addition, many adults may also have trouble using common flatware due to physical disabilities or diminished motor skills. For example, the elderly often suffer from physical impairments such as Parkinson's disease, severe arthritis, or overall weakness. Such physical impairments provide limited motor control and difficulty in manipulating eating utensils in everyday living.
Prior art is congested with various renditions of eating utensils that are designed to provide handles for enhancing the gripping abilities of individuals. Conventionally, most eating utensils include a distal operating end integrally attached to a shank defining a handle. The distal operating end typically comprises a blade of a knife, a spoon, or a plurality of curved tines that form a fork. The dimensional configuration of the flat shank often makes it difficult for small children or physically challenged individuals to effectively grasp. As a result, the utensils are awkwardly positioned during use or often fall to the floor.
As such a large majority of prior art eating utensils are mainly directed at the constructional aspects of improving the gripping handle of the utensil. Many devices have improved the shank portion of the traditional eating utensils by providing enlarged handles, handles including friction-enhancing features such as dimples, longitudinally spaced indentations, or raised ridges, and handles including a foam or cushion to provide comfort during use. Still, other special need utensils have been designed to also address other challenging situations. For example, self-leveling spoons have also been implemented to allow individuals to feed themselves without spilling food. Some utensils include tethers or straps that are removeably attached to the wrist of a user to prevent the utensil from falling to the floor in the event the user releases the utensil.
Though the newly constructed prior art eating utensils better assist the elderly and small children in holding and grasping the instrument, such devices fail to provide a hygienic solution in reducing and preventing germs from contaminating the utensil. For example, when handling eating utensils, adults usually place the utensils on a dinner table, in a sink, within a plate, or simply store the utensils in a drawer when not in use. Also, on many occasions, infants will place utensils on a highchair table, in a plate directly in front of them, or as is often the case, the child inadvertently drops the eating utensil on the floor. As traditional prior art eating utensils are placed on a horizontal surface, the distal operating end comes in contact with the surface thus potentially contaminating the eating utensil with germs and bacteria. Many surfaces are dirty, and include contaminants, germs and bacteria if not washed regularly. As a result, a contaminated eating utensil can pose a health risk to both the infant and adult. To safely reduce or eliminate germs and bacteria that may have contaminated the distal operating end of the eating utensil, the utensil must be repeatedly washed after coming into contact with a surface. Few, if any solutions have been adopted to address this concern.
The conventional prior art has effectively addressed some concerns provided by traditional eating utensils, however, there remains a need for an eating utensil that is adapted for use by small children or adults with physical impairments, is safe and easy to use, and configured to elevate the distal operative end of the utensil when the utensil is disposed on a surface to avoid contamination of the utensil.